Navy fights smugglers against all odds

HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The
unfavourable working conditions at sea have forced Vietnamese naval guards to
come up with brave and inventive ways to fight maritime smuggling.

Maritime smuggling has been a
pressing issue in Vietnam in recent years. Some 2,700 suspects were seized in
2016 for illegal trading, with some 415 billion VND (18 million USD)
confiscated, according to the Vietnam Border Defence Force’s drugs and crime
prevention statistics.

Oil is one of the most frequently
smuggled goods at sea. It is often delivered from Cambodia, Thailand, the
Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Malaysia and China to the waters off the central
provinces of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, and Phu Yen and the southern province of Ba
Ria-Vung Tau.

Seizing oil smuggling ships requires coordinated efforts from naval guards both
at sea and on the mainland. At 9pm on June 8, right when the fishing vessel KH
94545 TS started sailing off the Da Bac fishing port in Khanh Hoa province’s
Cam Ranh district, Lieutenant Truong Quang Hoc – disguised as a fisherman –
picked up the phone and announced to his team: “Target’s moving.”

When the vessel reached the middle of the sea, it was approached by a smaller
patrol ship. Two border guards and one anti-smuggling customs official jumped
from the ship to the vessel, seizing 48,000 litres of illegally-traded diesel
oil.

Similar vessels, which often go
undercover as seafood trading vessels, have become the “traces” that naval
guards follow to track the whereabouts of foreign oil smuggling container ships
in the waters of the central region.

These container ships, carrying some
millions of tonnes of oil, often wait until there are storms and big waves to
enter Vietnam. The naval patrol ships cannot rival container ships that weigh
thousand tonnes and are designed to endure extreme weather.

Understanding their disadvantage,
Vietnamese naval guards are prepared to risk it all when encountering those
containers. On the night of December 4, 2016, a naval guard patrol ship
approached the Dominican container ship Swift in the waters off the central
province of Phu Yen under heavy rain and strong winds.

Carrying some 4,300 tonnes (5.9 million litres) of RON92 oil, Swift was
a mobile oil vendor, running near the coasts at 1.8km per hour and contacting
smaller ships to sell oil right on the sea.

As the patrol ship headed towards the container ship and signaled for it to
stop, Swift sailors thought the vessel wanted to buy oil. But as soon as
they saw the words Border Guard painted on the side of the ship, they
accelerated in an attempt to run away, creating big waves that slapped against the
patrol boat, which was only 22m long and 4.5m high (from its deck to the top of
its flag pole).

As their patrol ship swung
violently, naval guards found it hard to maintain balance and climb over the
container ship. They decided to climb the flagpole and jumped from there.

Commander Bui Dinh Quang swung an AK 47 over his shoulders, climbed up the pole
with his teammates and clung onto it for dear life as a naval leader shouted
through his walkie-talkie from mainland: “Only jump when it’s safe!”

When the two ships crashed against
each other and made a shrieking sound, all the officers jumped from the top of
their flagpole to the Swift to the amazement of its sailors.

The officers then seized all the smuggled oil.

“There are all kinds of odds we face
on our sea-guarding missions,” said Commodore Pham Van Thuy, captain of the
naval squadron 48 under the Vietnam Border Defence Force. “But our minds are
made up: we will do everything to fight smuggling and protect our sea,” he
said.-VNS/VNA